Ceramic and glass business news of the week

Washington Mills manufactures Duralum Special White grit for applications that require attention to high purity and low iron contamination. This video shows the material in its various forms and demonstrates its use for finishing tight-tolerance components, such as hip implants.

Owens-Illinois opened a new recycled glass processing facility in Portland, Ore. that will use advanced technology and equipment to make more recycled glass available to be made into new, sustainable glass bottles and jars. Glass to Glass is a joint venture formed by Owens-Illinois (O-I), a leading manufacturer of glass packaging, and eCullet, a technology-based recycled glass processing company. The Glass to Glass facility will supply recycled glass to the O-I Portland plant located just a few miles away. Every 10 percent of recycled glass used in the manufacturing process reduces energy costs by 2-3 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 4-10 percent, according to the O-I Portland plant manager.

The University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab unveiled the Giant Magellan Telescope’s third primary mirror in December. The 25-foot glass dish—dubbed GMT3—was cast in August at the mirror lab, the only facility in the world capable of creating mirrors of this size. Technicians lifted the lid of the rotating furnace, removing a mold in which 20 tons of molten borosilicate glass slowly cooled into a parabolic shape, under the close watch of mirror lab staff to make sure it was from flaws such as bubbles, impurities, or cracks. The next step is to hoist GMT3 out of the furnace, turn it upright, and blast out the honeycomb molding scaffold by power washing. Then, until 2018, the mirror will slowly rotate on a carousel while computer-controlled polishing heads smooth its surface such that if the mirror were the size of the continental US, the tallest hill would be one inch. The Giant Magellan Telescope will be constructed at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

Silicon carbide is a key component of semiconductor devices and growth within the electronics and semiconductor market is also a driving factor governing SiC market growth. The report presents supply and demand projections of silicon carbide and applications and a detailed forecast from 2013 to 2019 along with revenues and volumes analysis. It also provides opportunities for the silicon carbide market for the near future along with the latest trends and factors influencing the market. Silicon carbide is also used as a structural material in composite armor, as ceramic plates in bullet-proof vests. Due to the voltage-dependant resistance offered by SiC, the material has been used in lightening arresters and provides safe transfer of high voltages of electricity from lightening as it strikes the earth.

(Buffalo Business First) TAM Ceramics LLC is planning on spending more than $3 million to upgrade its manufacturing facility. The Niagara Falls, N. Y., company is being aided by $250,000 in state-backed regional development council funding. The funding is part of $60.8 million allocated to Western New York as part of $715.9 million allocated for projects statewide. All total, the Western New York Regional Development Council’s $60.8 million will support TAM, plus 15 other projects.

TAM, which employs around 60, manufactures zircon, zirconia and titanate powders. The multimillion dollar project will take around three years to complete and includes refurbishing existing equipment and upgrading of a chemical facility.

Proppants are used to reinforce the tiny cracks opened up by hydraulic fracturing in order to allow oil and gas to flow more smoothly and keep extraction costs to a minimum. This industry has performed well alongside the market at large in 2013. More specifically, oil and gas companies like Pioneer Natural Resources have experienced so much success with proppants that they are considering using more per job to improve efficiencies and expand margins. Three stocks in the sand and ceramic proppant industry have done tremendously well for 2013—up as high as 150% for the year. All of them pay a dividend above 1% and seem poised to continue strong into 2014 with expected EPS growth of 25% or greater.